God comesto you disguised asyour life.

- Paula D'Arcy

Our Story

WE ARE A COMMUNITY CREATING RELATIONAL SPACE TOEMBRACE STORY, MYSTERY, & COLLABORATION.

We are a simple community trying to shape a live together that makes room for others and a growing and often changing faith. And while our MISSION is to collectively live out the restorative ways of Jesus -- we know that church often needs a reframing in order to see it's value. We are fully aware that church just isn't valuable to many people these days. And honestly, many of us have struggled with what role the church -- as we have often known it --- has in our life and world. However, collectively, we keep coming back to a hope that maybe there is a way to unlearn the stuff that doesn't matter and even reimagine what a community of faith [and doubt] might look like.

TRYING OUT OUR COMMUNITY IS A GREAT PLACE TO SEE IF WE MIGHT BE A FIT FOR YOU AND YOUR LIFE OF FAITHOR LACK of faith--which is also totally okay. We can describe our community in some idealistic terms, but it's really about how we live such things--and honestly, we don't often.

We need new metaphors.

Church is not a building. Church is not a day or time. Church isn't even a belief statement. We might be better at saying what church is NOT -- but at some point, we began to wrestle with what we see it to be. Here are a few metaphors that have kindled hope within us.

Limited View

Embracing Mystery

"We see through a glass darkly" embracing mystery, for us, is the willingness to let things be a little blurry and undefined. Leaving room for some uncertainty almost always makes us more open and compassionate people.

When you think you have all the answers–how well do you listen?

When you are confident things are a certain way–how can you be teachable & mold-able?

Holding our views loosely doesn’t mean we shouldn’t believe something–it just means that maybe we should be willing and open to edit as we go through life.

As we love and suffer; as we become isolated or build friendships; as we face circumstances we cannot understand; as we encounter enemies, doubts, questions; as we find fathomless beauty or the mundane of the everyday; we let go of a need to control life. We face the reality that we don't see everything clearly -- or correctly. In this discovery, we are then free to be present in our life and present with others.

Narrative

Embracing Story

Our lives are all unfolding stories. Our stories are unfinished, broken, and beautiful. To embrace story is to view our own life through the eyes of grace.

But embracing story is also a movement away from an ego-driven isolated story. Most of us need a “Copernicus Revolution” of sorts. We each need aid in seeing that the world doesn’t revolve around ME. Community life can aid in embracing the story of others. "Love your neighbor as yourself” . . . “Love your enemies” in the words of Jesus--is about embracing the other -- embracing their story as equally valid and valuable.

To us, embracing story also means considering a bigger picture beyond you and I, a larger narrative that speaks to meaning, existence, and purpose. This is a story we love, the story of the Divine. And yet, we also know that we are in a constant state of deconstruction and reorientation to this Story. To embrace the Story is to humbly and passionately struggle and yet rest within the bigger mystery.

Dinner Table

Embracing Collaboration

Websters defines ‘collaborate’ as – to work jointly with others or together.

Are we "working jointly" on anything with others?

How often are we open to listening to others? Is the direction of our life ever truly affected by those around us, who love and care for us? and live out a shared life with us?

As a community, we “embrace collaboration” believing that it’s a shared life that is the most full. It’s when we let others in our life and when we join others for a common way that we see so much more value in life.

Convergence eats together often; and when we eat, it's a collaboration -- a pot luck. We want this to be a living picture of shared life and responsibility. We are not a “ministry machine” that uses people to accomplish a certain goal. We work together - building relationships, together, for relationship sake -- not for the sake of an organization.